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Message: <blockquote data-quote="monson" data-source="post: 18795354" data-attributes="member: 30005">Sri Lanka police seize Red Cross 'Defender' over Thajudeen's murderECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's Red Cross Monday admitted that a Land Rover Defender belonging to them had been seized by the police Criminal Investigations Department probing the murder of rugby star Wasim Thajudeen.The head of Sri Lanka Red Cross Jagath Abeysinghe had been questioned extensively on how a Red Cross vehicle was used in the abduction of Thajudeen in May 2012 shortly before he was killed.The defender vehicle now forms part of the evidence. However, more questions have been raised over why the new vehicle had been repainted black changing from its original colour of white.Abeysinghe, a close family friend of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, has maintained that he authorised the gift of the Defender (WP KA-0642) to the Siriliya Saviya Foundation at the request of the then government.It was not clear on what basis the Red Cross, a member of the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, gave the vehicle to Shiranthi Rajapaksa's Siriliya Saviya in August 2011.Red Cross in a statement posted on its website today said the then Social Services minister Felix Perera had requested them to give the vehicle to Siriliya Saviya Foundation of Shiranthi Rajapaksa.The "opportunity to support the Siriliya Saviya Foundation should be considered as a privilege to serve the most vulnerable people of Sri Lanka," the then minister Perera had told the Red Cross, according to the Red Cross statement."Accordingly a defender bearing the number plate WP - KA 0642 was handed over to the Chairperson of the Siriliya Saviya Foundation Former First Lady Mrs. Shiranthi Rajapaksa on the 11th of August 2011," the statement said.Questions are being raised on why Siriliya Saviya repainted the white Defender vehicle and gave it a fresh coat of black paint. The colour change had not been notified to the registrar of motor vehicles as required by law.It becomes even more curious why the Red Cross repossessed the vehicle after the fall of Rajapaksa regime following the January 8 presidential election.Meanwhile, forensic experts exhumed the body of Thajudeen today and formally reopened the murder investigation.Police sources said an internal investigation was also underway to find out how the then Senior Deputy Inspector General Anura Senanayake ordered to close the Thajudeen case without any judicial orders.    The cover up of the crime stretches to the then IGP, N. K. Illangakoon who is still holding that post, the sources said adding that his position is also increasingly untenable.</blockquote>

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